Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs (JCFA)

Strategic Alliances for a Secure, Connected, and Prosperous Region

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The Gaza-Egypt Smuggling Tunnels Must Be Closed

January 14, 2009 | Amb. Dore Gold

When Israelis look back on what caused the current conflict in Gaza, they point to their government's decision in September 2005 to leave the narrow "Philadelphi Route" that runs along the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula. More than Israel's disengagement from the Strip as a whole, the abandonment of this strategic area made full-scale war inevitable.

The Palestinian Authority and the Jewish Holy Sites in the West Bank:
Rachel’s Tomb as a Test Case

December 2, 2007 | Nadav Shragai

Rachel’s Tomb lies on the northern outskirts of Bethlehem, about 460 meters (about 500 yards) south of the Jerusalem municipal border, and for more than 1,700 years has been identified as the tomb of the matriarch Rachel. In 2000, after hundreds of years of recognizing the site as Rachel’s Tomb, Muslims began calling it the “Bilal ibn Rabah mosque” – a claim that ignored Ottoman decrees that gave Jews the right of access to the site at the beginning of the nineteenth century.

Israel and the PLO Now Struggle for Leverage

September 16, 1993 | Amb. Dore Gold

Now that the drama surrounding the Israel-PLO signing ceremony has passed, it is critical to consider just what this accord means for the future of the Arab-Israel conflict. Are we speaking about a historical reconciliation between Israel and the Palestinians that will bring a new era of stability to the Middle East? Or will many of the struggles of the past just be rechanneled within new parameters?